Carlotta is alotta woman as she and her estranged and disparate cohorts find themselves invited to a high society dinner engagement that is brought low by unforeseen circumstances. The film is about the preparation for the party focusing briefly upon multiple characters as they suffer and manipulate circumstances to utilize this gathering as a means to their own ends (or an end to their own means). Cukor’s direction is swift and cocksure for such a talky stage-bound film, every actor makes their characters interesting if not wholly relatable and the script is volatile and smart with wonderful photography and editing.
English Royalty, Lord and Lady Ferncliffe (should be Lord & Lady MacGuffin!) are visiting New York City and Millicent Jordan has to have them over for dinner. So, Millicent goes hyperactive as she has only hours to plan and get invitations to other socialites in order to impress. Her husband Oliver is more concerned with his business affairs sinking and their daughter Paula can’t wait to welcome home her fiancée from a long trip. Carlotta is a retired and aged Diva who owns stock in Oliver’s shipping company and once owned stock in him, too! Then there’s the pickled Larry Renault, a washed-up actor who can’t accept his fate and the love of the aforementioned Paula, who wants to break her engagement and be his young and nubile wife. We are also introduced to a business magnate with political aspirations Dan Packard and his gorgeous wife Kitty whose verbal sparring and barbed-wire relationship are some of the highlights of the film. Kitty is sleeping with her doctor and somehow they all get invited to the party!
For my money it’s Marie Dressler as Carlotta Vance who steals the film. She plays her role with self-deprecating humor yet never loses her gregarious Diva status: she’s both sincere and high society. Jean Harlow as Kitty more than holds her own against her bully husband played by Wallace Beery, lashing with verbal barbs and standing nose-to-nose with her pugnacious peer. Her curled fists are more than just a show! She’s tough and annoyingly adorable utilizing anger one moment and squeaky baby-talk the next. John Barrymore is pathetic as the alcoholic actor Larry Renault and his suicide is shocking in the final act; his performance spirals ever downward into depths many actors would never explore. His brother Lionel’s subtle performance of Oliver as the family Patriarch (no histrionics here) is also wonderful so we fully empathize when we learn of his broken heart (literally, coronary thrombosis). As he lays dying in bed with his wife Millicent at his side, she vows to downsize their lifestyle so she can care for him and it is beautifully touching: Billie Burke as Millicent plays the entire movie in hyperactive mode but when the shit hits the fan, she is able to be convincing as the loving and loyal wife too.
The taught script is filled with so many one-liners, stings and comebacks that it’s worth your time to watch this again and again. Few films swing the pendulum from comedy to tragedy so quickly, sometime within the same sentence! Frances Marion, Herman Mankiewicz and Donald Ogden Stewart give us this delectable dinner recipe and Cukor and cast cook it for us!
Final Grade: (A)